Stilbaai: 31 October 2024
The plight of South Africa’s subsistence fishing communities is increasingly receiving due attention from government and its agencies, but particularly with both the allocation of more fish species rights, as well as support in terms of enhancing fishing safety, according to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE).
This emerged this week at a function by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) to present sets of personal protective and fishing safety gear to members of a rural subsistence cooperative, the Stillcob Joint Primary Corporative in Stilbaai, Western Cape province, on Tuesday.
The donation handover was the second of its kind in terms of SAMSA’s Corporate Social Investment and Sustainability project for 2024 – the first having been made a month ago to a Centani, Eastern Cape based 60-member strong rural subsistence fishing cooperative. registered as the Eluthimba Small Scale Fisheries Cooporative.
According to SAMSA head of CSI, Ms Mapitso Dlepu, this year’s corporate social investment shift towards the country’s subsistence fishing community was to galvanise and consolidate state support for sustainable fishing and community development to alleviate poverty and empower subsistence fishing dependent communities.
The subsistence fishing cooperatives selected for support this year – both based in SAMSA’s Southern Region that straddles parts of both the Eastern and Western Cape provinces – she said; were provided with basic fishing safety gear following consultation and a needs identification that was conducted jointly with the DFFE fisheries development division.
Primarily, the donated equipment was intended to enable the fishermen to fish more efficiently while adhering to safety, she said. According to Ms Dlepu, SAMSA is committed to maintaining ongoing focus of its CSI activity on providing support that promotes and enhances safety of subsistence fisher communities countrywide. For her remarks, click on the video below.
SAMSA Mossel Bay area Principal Officer, Capt. Thembela Taboshe also weighed in, restating the significance of the SAMSA gesture from the entity’s operations perspective.
In Stilbaai on Tuesday, DFFE Fisheries Development Officer for the Garden Route area of the Western Cape province, Ms Boitumelo Chakane-Nxusani said the country currently has 172 registered subsistence fishing cooperatives, the marjority (92) of them in the Western Cape, and collectively accounting for over 10 000 members.
Significantly though, she said, was that in a decisive break with past practice, the variety of fishing species of allowable catch by subsistence fishers had been increased to include species caught for commercial purposes in addition to those for personal consumption.
Additionally, she said, the department was working diligently to ensure diversity in the subsector by encouraging and promoting the inclusion of both women and youth.
For her full remarks, click on the video below:
In welcoming the fishing safety gear support by SAMSA, the chairperson of the Stillcob Joint Primary Cooperative Limited, Mr Ben Strydom described it as a ‘great relief’ after an eight year struggle to access resources to alleviate the plight of subsistence fishers.
Mr Strydom also indicated his pleasure at the expansion of species that are now going to be allowed for subsistence fishers, thereby allowing them to also contribute to social and economic development through increased production output and commercial markets access that would lead to creation of employment and wider of sharing of income. For his views, click on the video below.
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